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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26232976">33 Years Gone</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marf_Redux/pseuds/Marf_Redux'>Marf_Redux</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Transformation Divergence Three [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Human turned Galra, M/M, More tags to be added, Time Travel, allies turned enemies, dissention in the ranks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:29:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,053</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26232976</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marf_Redux/pseuds/Marf_Redux</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>At this start of this third divergence the castle of lions is thrown 33 years into the future.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Keith/Shiro (Voltron)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Transformation Divergence Three [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1905121</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Part One of Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Comments are disabled. I have my reasons for this and they are in my profile if you simply must know why. I tell you this so you will be forewarned in case you don't want to read fics that disable them.</p>
<p>Kudos are appreciated and thank you in advance to anyone who leaves them.</p>
<p>Like the previous two divergences this one starts after The Trap and goes it's own direction this time involving time travel.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>33 Years Gone<br/>Part One of Five</p>
<p>At the last second before she could take action Haggar had struck again and wrenched the crystal from her grasp. In less than a second she saw it vanish and felt Haggar swelling with power as the crystal was now in her hands. She acted on instinct using her fading connection to the crystal to crack it causing it to explode taking Haggar with it. She felt the witch trying to absorb the power but it was too much and then Haggar and her ship were simply gone consumed by a massive explosion.</p>
<p>She saw the shock wave coming and yelled into the comm, “Brace for impact.” She hoped if any of the others were still on their feet they’d have time to do so but once the wave hit she blacked out. Her last thought was sensing the spacial distortion as the castle was forced back into the still open teledaav.</p>
<p>“Keith, any idea where we are yet” Shiro’s voice said as she came too being held against him. She glanced to the side to see that Coran was beside her his head also propped up on Shiro’s chest.  He must have felt her move because he looked down at her. “Allura, your awake, are you okay do I need to get you to the healing pods?”</p>
<p>“I’ll be fine, how are Coran and everyone else?” She asked as she managed to pull herself away form him and sit up. She noticed that he and Keith were the  only two on the bridge and Coran was still out though based on him beginning to mumble to himself he would probably wake soon.</p>
<p>“They are okay just not up to making it out of the lions yet they should be up here soon,” Shiro said then glanced over to where Keitih was still staring at the pilots console. “Keith,” he asked hesitantly and she got the impression that he was worried by Keith’s lack of response.</p>
<p>“This doesn’t make any sense according to these instruments we are back at the staging area for the coalition fleet but there is no fleet here,” Keith said after a moment. “But the diagnostic says that nothing is wrong with the navigation system.”</p>
<p>“Try running a stellar movement analysis perhaps we experienced a shift in space time,” she said thinking about them being shoved through the teledaav by the energy fo the crystal. “It should tell us if we have moved slightly forward or backward in time.”</p>
<p>She noticed the door to the control room opening then and the other three paladins limping in supporting each other. “Exactly what happened to cause that?” Pidge asked clearly annoyed. “That impact knocked all five lions into each other.”</p>
<p>“Haggar, managed to take the  crystal that was one the previous castle of lions from me so I had no choice but to make it self destruct,” she said after a moment. “The shock wave knocked us back through the still open teledaav and now we can see no trace of the rebel ships.”</p>
<p>Keith swore loudly before anyone could respond, “According to the stellar movement analysis anywhere from twenty seven to thirty six years might have passed for the rest of the universe.” She felt her heart drop at that. “It says we should access a chrono beacon to know for sure.”</p>
<p>“I’m on it,” Pidge said limping over to push Keith out of the way,”  she could tell by the set of Pidge’s shoulders that she was determined to find out what happened instead of panicking.  She could tell the moment Pidge got the new date as her shoulder’s slumped. “It’s been thirty three years, I’m going to see if I can access a public information feed and see if we can get any idea what’s happened while we’ve been gone.”</p>
<p>She glanced around seeing the faces of all the Paladins fall as the gravity of this situation hit them. She was just personally grateful it hadn’t been longer because while over three decades would be a challenge it was nothing like waking up after ten thousand years. “What does this mean for Earth?” Lance asked suddenly. “For our families I mean Morvok had control of the planet and if we weren’t there to teleport in the fleet...” His voice trailed off.</p>
<p>“It can’t be,” Pidge said staring at the console. “This has to be wrong that can’t be right.”  She made her way over and glanced down at the screen to see what was so shocking. It was a head line declaring the ten year anniversary of the great Terran Galra Peace accord.  She felt herself freeze as she saw the image they’d included of the famous signing of the peace accord between Supreme Leader Wade of the Terran empire and Emperor Sendak of the Galra Empire.</p>
<p>“Your world endures Paladins but it has allied with Sendak and his Galra empire,” she said and watched as everyone’s face fell. “Is there any information on the Coalition there does it still exist?” She had a horrible feeling that their absence may have doomed their allies.</p>
<p>“I can’t find any references to it in the articles but this news service doesn’t have much of an archive,” Pidge said shaking her head. “I’ll have to contact Olkarian to find out exactly what’s going on.” She found herself objecting at the same time as Shiro and Keith. “Why not its the quickest way to find out what happened?”</p>
<p>“We can’t contact anyone until we know the situation,” Shiro said before she could. “Our first priority has to be making sure the castle and ourselves are in battle ready condition and then we’ll find out what happened and plan accordingly.”</p>
<p>“Shiro is right until we know the situation we cannot risk bringing attention to ourselves,” she said after a moment. “We may be in a position of having to start our fight all over again and we cannot do that if we make the wrong move and we are discovered before we know what is going on.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Part Two of Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>33 Years Gone<br/>Part Two of Five</p>
<p>“Any luck finding the Blade of Marmora,” He asked as Keith and Shiro walked in looking down.  He saw the door opening behind them as Allura and Coran arrived on the bridge from where they’d been working to get the Castle’s shields back to full operation.</p>
<p>“No, one of the two closest facilities was gone just debris in space and the other was empty but some type of battle had taken place there,” Shiro said and held up a blade. “We found this embedded in a human skeleton.” </p>
<p>He felt a bit sick since it was looking like that head line was right. “Hunk, have Pidge and Lance called in yet for their wormhole yet their fly by of Olkarian should not have taken this long.” Allura asked him joining them and breaking the silence.</p>
<p>“They called and said they were taking a detour to find out more before they came back,” he said seeing Allura and Shiro both looked pissed off. “I tried to get them to come straight back but Pidge cut the connection.”</p>
<p>“So she isn’t going to be happy until she gets us found out by a universe we are unprepared for,” Allura said angrily. “Did they at least tell you the state of Olkarian or did they not bother to even do that.”</p>
<p>He wished he wasn’t stuck in the middle of this, “All they said was that it was bad and then Pidge started talking about the detour something about picking up a lot of of radio traffic a few systems over so she wanted to investigate.” He sighed, “I asked her to let me call you but she refused.”</p>
<p>“Do you want us to go after them,” Shiro asked speaking up. “Me, Kieth and Hunk could take the lions and go after them?” Allura shook her head no and sat down. </p>
<p>“I’m sure it will be fine Princesss, the green lion is cloaked after all,” Coran said clearly trying to calm Allura down but one look at her face made it clear it wasn’t working. “I’ll make sure the shields are fully charged just in case.”</p>
<p>“The Green lion’s cloak worked thirty three years ago we have no idea how things might have changed since then,” Allura said and then turned toward Keith and Shiro. “Did you manage to find out how long ago the base you searched was attacked?”</p>
<p>“The computer system didn’t register any activity for over twenty years,” Keith said glancing at the blade in Shiro’s hand. “the fact humans were in the group that attacked means we definitely won’t be welcome on Earth.”</p>
<p>The comm began to beep loudly and before he could answer it Allura was there, “Allura we need evac now.” Lance screamed and Allura moved locking onto their position and triggering a teledaav from the stored energy. </p>
<p>The Green lion shot out of the worm hole gate with particle beams following it. Allura immediately closed the gate and then opened another behind them. “Get on board the castle now,” she said to Pidge and Lance. </p>
<p>As soon as they were on board Allura keyed the controls and Castle leapt forward way from the teledaav. “Coran, turn the particle barriar to full strenght and be ready to activate it on my signal.” She then triggered the more traditional faster than light drive and took them away from the area.</p>
<p>“Hey Allura why did you activate the second teledaav if we weren’t going to use it,” he finally asked as Pidge and Lance arrived.  “Hey guys what happened?’ he said to them since Allura was taking her time answering him.</p>
<p>“Somehow they were able to detect us even cloaked we got attacked as soon as we got too close,” Lance said shaking his head. “I can’t believe they found us.”  He glanced at Pidge to see she looked stubborn. “Look Allura I know we shouldn’t have gone to investigate but after what we saw at Olkarian we had to.” Lance looked down, “the planet is gone Allura there’s nothing left but a shattered asteroid field with a webloom feeding on it.”</p>
<p>“Then you should have followed orders and come back immediately,” Allura said angrily. “The two of you are grounded and will be going on no more missions unsupervised.” He could tell by Pidge and Lance’s faces that they were shocked. “Thanks to you our enemies now know we are alive and back with unknown advantages over us.” </p>
<p>“How were we supposed to know that they could see through the green lion’s cloak nothing has before now,” Pidge said angrily. “And you aren’t grounding me here I’m going to find my family.” So that was what it was Pidge was going to do the exact same thing she did before. </p>
<p>“No you aren’t Pidge,” Shiro said darkly. “Your going to follow orders this time.”  He knew he was staring in shock and he wasn’t the only one. Shiro had been the biggest advocate for letting Pidge make up her own mind last time but he just sided with Allura. “Earth is the enemy and while I hope the people we know and care about aren’t there is no way to know for sure.” He could tell by everyone’s face that they knew he was right. “And until we know exactly what the situation is everyone is going to fall in and do their jobs and if you can’t then you can stay in your quarters because your not putting us in danger with insubordination again.” Pidge looked as if Shiro had slapped her.</p>
<p>“Now Allura why don’t you tell them why you opened the other teledaav,” Shiro said in a way that made it clear he already knew. He noticed Pidge and Lance were still staring at Shiro in shock but he glanced back at Allura.</p>
<p>“I can do more than that I can show you,” she punched up the display and it showed the sector of space they had just been in. “Our Teledaav was tracked,” she said and the screen was filled with ships looking around. “I am hoping that tracking the teledaav I opened will lead them away but if not I need everyone on full alert and at their stations.”</p>
<p>“I don’t get it how did they track our teledaav that should be impossible,” Pidge said sounding disturbed. “I mean to do something like that they’d need the exact specs of our set up and there is no way they could have them.”</p>
<p>“Your forgetting that your father had complete blue prints for the castle’s systems on Earth and as Shiro said Earth is our enemy now,” Allura said darkly. “That is why we cannot afford to take chances or allow you to pursue your own agenda this time.” No one responded to that statement and a horrible silence descended on the bridge.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Part Three of Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>33 Years Gone<br/>Part Three of Five</p>
<p>She carefully made her way toward the hanger after disabling the Castle surveillance systems.  It had been three days already and neither Shiro or Allura were letting up so she was done waiting. She was going to find her family now.  “Going some where,” Shiro’s voice said from behind her causing her to start and turn to see him there. </p>
<p>“How, I disabled the security system,” she said and then saw Allura standing behind him. “You added a back up to the system didn’t you?” She asked figuring it was the only possible answer for why she hadn’t noticed.</p>
<p>“I didn’t need to Pidge,” Allura said darkly. “We knew that sooner or later you’d attempt this and so we discussed how to deal with it in private.” Shiro looked unhappy as he glanced at Allura. “If you wish to leave then we won’t stop you, we’ll give you a pod and I’ll open a teledaav to the location of your choice.”</p>
<p>“But your leaving the green bayard behind and we won’t be coming after you no matter what happens,”  Shiro said speaking up. “If you choose to leave then your no longer the Green Paladin and no longer part of Voltron.” She felt like she’d been slapped.</p>
<p>“You can’t take the green lion away from me,” she said and saw Shiro’s face fall. “Look I get that your worried but I’ll be careful and once I know my family is safe I’ll come back.”   She glanced at Allura but her face was hard so she turned toward Shiro. “You can’t punish me for trying to find my family.”</p>
<p>“Yes, we can,” Shiro said stepping forward and standing over her. His tail began to thrash in clear irritation. “I get that you want to find out what happened to your family and friends just like everyone else on this ship but the mission comes first and if you can’t accept that then you have no place here not this time.”</p>
<p>“You’d understand if you had a family,” she said and saw Shiro’s eyes widen in shock before being replaced with clearly visible hurt. She almost regretted it when she saw the hurt look on his face but they were making it impossible. She wasn’t stupid if she left without the green lion she’d never get very far and they knew that.</p>
<p>“Everyone to the bridge now,” Coran’s voice came over the com interrupting before anyone could reply to what she’d said. “There is a ship hailing us using Sam Holt’s codes.”  She felt a surge of Joy her dad was alive and so she bolted toward the bridge. </p>
<p>She could hear Shiro and Allura chasing after her but she didn’t care. Her dad would surely be able to tell  where everyone else was.  She made it to the bridge to see that Hunk, Lance and Keith were already there with Coran. She glanced at the screen to see that her father’s call hadn’t been put through. “Why haven't you accepted dad’s call?”</p>
<p>“Sorry, Pidge, but Allura gave strict orders no accepting any kind of call without proof,” She felt irritated and started to head to the console to take the call herself when Keith was suddenly between her and the console. “Out of the way Keith.”</p>
<p>“Coran, are the safe guards in place,” Allura said from behind her before she had to push the issue with Keith. She saw Coran nod and then Allura took her place at the podium. “Accept the hail.”  Her father appeared on the screen then. It was obviously him even though it brought home exactly how much time had passed for the rest of the universe. Still he looked good to be nearly eighty years old now.</p>
<p>She watched as a frown appeared on his face and he looked at some instruments. “You’ve improved your computer security,” he said in a sad tone and she glanced at Allura to see her frowning deeply. “This would have been so much easier if I could just disable your ship.”   He looked at her then, “Katie I’m sorry but if you and the others do not surrender immediately we will be forced to destroy the Castle of Lions.”</p>
<p>Alarms began to sound then, “Princess, I’m afraid we are being targeted by multiple weapons and according to these readings our partical barrier won’t stop them.”  She ignored everything just staring at her father. This didn’t make any sense there was no way he’d have gone down this path.</p>
<p>“Incoming ship,” Hunk yelled and then the her father was gone from the screen as it was replaced with an image of the ship that had been threatening them being cut in half by an energy blast from another ship that had come out of now where.  The new ship was much smaller and sleeker  but she ignored it to focus on the ship that had been split in half the ship her father was on as it exploded into pieces.</p>
<p>“Dad,” she said in shock and then more ships like the first were starting to show up. They were large and bulky clearly packing a lot of firepower. She couldn’t believe she’d found her father alive again just to watch him die.</p>
<p>“We’re being hailed by two different groups,” Coran yelled in shock. “One is Sam Holt ordering us all to surrender or be destroyed again and the other is a simple text message telling us to follow them into their teledaav by the ship that came to our rescue.” She was glad to hear her father was alive but none of this made sense</p>
<p>“Follow that ship,” Allura said and the Castle jerked and she saw the smaller ship on screen opening a teledaav that looked different than the normal ones. Instead of the brilliant blue it was a bright red. She started to say something but then the ship rocked hit by blast from the ships her father was transmitting from.  However, in seconds they were in the red teledaav allowing them to safely get away.</p>
<p>“We are being hailed again this time it’s a video feed,”  Coran said and Allura motioned for him to put it on the screen. The person who appeared’s appearance was shocking it was clearly an older version of Shiro’s human self with grey hair and a pair of glasses.</p>
<p>“Let’s get this out of the way I am not Ryou, I’m the other one, and I’m sure you have plenty of questions but they’ll have to wait,” the man said calmly. “I’m going to need you to follow my instructions so we can make sure the Terran’s can’t follow us and you aren’t going to like them.”</p>
<p>“What do you need us to do,” Allura asked and she wondered why Allura was trust this guy considering that last time they saw him he was with Adam Wade and they knew that Adam’s father Admiral Wade was the leader of Earth.</p>
<p>“When we emerge from this teledaav in about thirty minuites, I’ll need you to shut down everything on your ship so that Holt can’t track your ship’s power signature any longer,” he said after a moment. “Once we have you at a safe port you can be filled in on everything that’s happened the last few decades.” He then glanced down at some thing, “I’ll let you discuss it but if you don’t agree we’ll have to leave you to your fate because we can’t afford a confrontation with a main terran battle group right now.” The connection cut off.</p>
<p>“We aren’t going to trust him are we,” she said before anyone else could. “We have no idea what’s going and that was my dad back there and he could have killed him.” She could tell by several of their faces that she wasn’t going to like what they said next.</p>
<p>“We don’t have a choice but to trust him,” Hunk said speaking up from where he was looking. “That hit before we got into the teledaav it killed our own teledaav as well as the weapons and defense systems.” He looked down, “We can’t do anything to defend our selves.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Part Four of Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>33 Years Gone <br/>Part four of Five</p>
<p>“So here we are sitting ducks,” Pidge said as several large sleek ships surrounded the powered down castle and began to tow it some type of tractor beams.   “We should have stayed behind and talked to my dad so we could find out what was going on?”  He ignored her and focused on the large orange teledaav opening.</p>
<p>“What’s with the different colors,” Lance said also clearly ignoring Pidge’s ranting to focus on the glow. “I mean the small ship opened a red one and now there’s a bright orange one.” He glanced over at Shiro who was standing near Allura his tail moving slowly. He could tell by the glances Shiro kept shooting Pidge that he was really pissed at her over something.</p>
<p>“I would assume changes to the dimensional focus matrix to ensure it can’t be tracked,” Coran said looking at it. “It could also effect range or be a side effect of the type of energy being used.” He could tell that Hunk and Allura followed that but he didn’t. A glance at Pidge showed she wasn’t even listening.</p>
<p>“Shouldn’t we at least be in the lions in case we need to defend ourselves,” Pidge said angrily and while the same thought had occurred to him he was going to follow Shiro and Allura’s lead on this. He glanced over at them.</p>
<p>“Given how readily we were tracked I fear the lions could also give us away,” Allura said looking over at her. “I also am not sure that you would refrain from powering on your lion for your own reasons.” There was no mistaking the intent of that statement to point out that Allura didn’t consider Pidge trustworthy at the moment.</p>
<p>He was grateful that Pidge didn’t respond immediately because seconds later there was a flash and they arrived in normal space again. “That’s a lot of ships,” Hunk said sounding nervous and he had to agree there were a lot of ships in orbit of what appeared to be a massive ship yard.</p>
<p>“We are being hailed on the short ranged emergency frequencies,” Allura said and then flipped a switch. He could tell that everyone was curious as they waited for someone to speak up. “This is the Castle of lions.” </p>
<p>“Is my son there,” a very familiar voice said and he felt himself relaxing as he heard his mother’s voice. He had done his best to avoid thinking about what may have happened to her over the decades they’d missed. </p>
<p>“Yes, Krolia he’s here,” Shiro said speaking up before he could find the words. He nodded his thanks to Shiro. “Can we power on the castle again or do we need to keep things powered down?” Shiro asked quickly and he glanced over at Pidge who looked disturbed. He guessed it was learning that allies were on different sides.</p>
<p>“No it would be best if you didn’t,” his mother said quickly. “I will have Kosmo transport myself and several technicians over to see if the Castle of Lions can be salvaged meet us in the docking bay.” The connection cut off then and Allura looked around.</p>
<p>“Are we sure Krolia is trustworthy,” Pidge said speaking up as they began to make their way to the docking bay. It required a slightly round about way with the power shut down. “We have no idea about the politics of this time period.” He actually saw Allura visibly grimace at Pidge’s statement. </p>
<p>“No we aren’t sure she’s trustworthy,” He said before anyone else could maybe she’d get it if he said it. “Which is why Allura and Shiro wanted us to lay low and learn exactly what the state of the galaxy was before we got involved but you ruined any chance of that and so now we have no choice but to follow through on the course of action you put us on.” It had been hard not taking off immediately to search all the places he knew to look for the Blades but instead he and Shiro had stuck to Allura’s plan to approach one or the other of the two installations closest to them to see if they could confirm the Blade even still existed.</p>
<p>Pidge looked uncomfortable but she still had a stubborn set to her jaw that made it clear she disagreed with him stating it was her fault. “They are already here,” Allura said as they entered the room to find several members of the Blade of Marmora moving around with heavy equipment and a very large Kosmo. He was five or six times the size he’d been last time they saw him. His mother was hanging back next to him and she said something  to him and he bounded up to them and sniffed deeply before making a huff sound. </p>
<p>“Do it,” his mother said and suddenly there was a flash as Kosmo took them somewhere.  In seconds they were in a room and then just as quickly Kosmo was gone and before anyone could say or do anything pain exploded in his head and he blacked out.</p>
<p>He came too some time later to find himself laying on a very soft bed. He glanced around and saw the others waking up.  He could tell by their faces that they were all recalling what happened. “I am truly sorry,” his mothers voice said and he turned to see her entering the room. “I wish that had not been necessary but we had to be sure it was really you.”</p>
<p>“Bull shit you’ve proven your not trustworthy,” Pidge said angrily. “We should have gone with my dad instead of trusting ...” She stopped talking and he clearly saw why when Matt Holt entered. He looked a great deal older and a lot like his father but it was clearly him. “Matt, your here?” He could hear the confusion in her voice.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I am,” he said tiredly. “Like Krolia said we had to be sure it was really you because the Terran’s have tried faking your return before.” He looked grim, “However, unless they’ve found a way to fake the lions which our expert assures us they haven’t then it really is you this time.” He wondered what they meant by expert. </p>
<p>“So that version of dad with the Terrans was fake?” Pidge asked relief evident in her voice but one look at Matt Holt’s face made it it clear what his answer was going to be and Pidge’s face fell staring at him. “Come on Dad wouldn’t side with Wade.”</p>
<p>“A lot has changed in the last thirty three years Pidge,” Matt said grimly. “I’ll have someone fill you in as soon as possible but right now I need to get back to see if it’s possible to outfit the Castle of Lions with the cloaking tech so we can move the entire fleet and ship yard before the Terran’s find us.”</p>
<p>Matt turned and left then leaving them alone with his mother. “Mom,” he asked turning toward her but before he could say anything else she was hugging him.</p>
<p>“I knew you’d find your way back some day,” she said after a moment. “There is so much I need to tell you and Shiro both.” He didn’t know what she meant by that.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Part Five of Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>33 Years Gone <br/>Part Five of Five</p>
<p>He wished Krolia had stayed and answered questions but shortly after Matt had left there was a chirp on her communicator and she’d left them alone after one final hug for Keith and to everyone’s shock a quick one to Shiro before she headed out of the room. He could tell that had surprised everyone and now they were sitting alone waiting for someone to say something.</p>
<p>He wished someone would say something because the silence that had descended was getting to him. He was saved from putting his foot in his mouth out of desperation to say something when the door opened and an older version of Shiro walked in. He looked very similar to the other one they’d seen but he didn’t seem to need glasses and his sleek black arm gave away his identity. “Ryou, you were the expert on the lions,” Allura said in a way that sounded like a question but clearly wasn’t. He was glad to see his friend was alive even though it made him worry about his family back in Cuba even more.</p>
<p>“Yes, I’m also the one whose going to try to get you caught up on what’s going on,” He looked over at him and Hunk, “Let me get the hard part out of the way to start with.” He felt his stomach drop because the way Ryou was looking at them made it clear he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear. “The bad news is that not all of your families back home survived though some members of them are out here others are either still in Teran controlled space or deceased.”</p>
<p>“How on Earth did things get so screwed up,” Pidge said before he or Hunk could say anything. “Why are my brother and father on different sides?” He glanced down at the ground and focused on biting his tongue he wanted to lay into Pidge for interrupting because he wanted to know the status of his family.</p>
<p>“It all started with the blast that disrupted the teledaav and as far as we knew killed all of you,” Ryou said with a deep frown. “It created some kind of space time fault that made travel to Earth’s corner of the universe impossible for nearly ten years and when that barrier finally came down the new Teran empire was waiting on the other side to launch a major war of aggression.” He looked straight at Pidge, “Your father was helping lead the charge from the very beginning and we’ve never had a chance to question him about why.” He sighed to himself before continuing, “Unfortunately there are a lot of mysteries about those missing ten years chief among them how Earth got the resources and advanced fast enough to build the Terran Empire in just ten years while they were isolated from the rest of the universe.”</p>
<p>“I was wondering about that,” Shiro said almost to himself and he noticed Allura was nodding as well. “Can you tell us the situation right now before you go into any more history?” He asked looking at Ryou. It was strange that last time he’d seen Shiro and Ryou together they had been as close to identicle as a human and galra could be but now Ryou looked so much older.</p>
<p>Ryou nodded and hit a switch and pulled out a device that projected a stellar map. “The green area is the Terran Empire as you can see it’s the largest power around,” he said pointing it out. “That purple chunk next to it is Sendak’s Galra Empire. The Orange one is the Olkari federation which was born from part of the Voltron coaltion lead by the surviving Olkari and is currently in a cold war with the Terran Empire.” He sighed, “We aren’t affiliated with either of the three, as we are a free lance resistance fleet.”</p>
<p>“Wait then who are you with?” Pidge said clearly in shock. “I mean I’m glad to learn the Olkari weren’t wiped out when their planet was but how did they end up with a federation?” He couldn’t blame her for that but he wanted to get back to the subject of his family but he was trying not to interrupt.</p>
<p>Sendak was the one who destroyed the Olkari world about three years after you vanished but fortunately most Olkari managed to escape with the aid of a weapon they built to try to save the faltering coalition,” he looked uncomfortable. “There’s a lot I have to tell y ou about that Weapon and it’s follow up quiet a bit of it you won’t like..” Ryou trailed off clearly uncomfortable with the subject.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry but I have to ask about my family,” Hunk said interrupting in a hurry. “You said that some of our families were here which ones?” He was glad that Hunk interpreted before he did because he wouldn’t have been that calm about things.</p>
<p>“Your mother, Niece and Nephew made it off world shortly after the barrier fell and local resistance took the opportunity to get as many critics of the regime off world,” Ryou said looking at Hunk. “Your father was killed and we don’t know what happened to the rest of your family.” He could tell by Hunk’s face that the news crushed him. “Lance, your sister Veronica and your siblings and their kids made it off world but the rest of your family are missing.”  He then turned toward Pidge, “I was going to leave this up to Matt to tell you but I guess I should also tell you that your mother is dead killed shortly after the barrier came down.”</p>
<p>“Who killed her?” Pidge asked her voice making it clear she wanted revenge.  He watched as Ryou’s face clouded over and he sighed to himself. “It was you wasn’t it that’s really why Dad is with the Teran Empire.”</p>
<p>“We don’t know who killed your mom  Pidge,” Ryou said clearly annoyed. “Some people in the resistance claimed she was with them and trying to get off world to contact Matt but the Teran Empire condemned the rebels on Earth claiming it was an assassination attempt on your father backed by alien trouble makers.” He looked down, “Matt has his own theories but you’ll have to talk to him about it.” His comm beeped then and he answered it though they couldn’t hear what was said. “I’ve got to go, someone else will be back to fill you in shortly stay here.” He left quickly after that leaving them alone.</p>
<p>“So do we believe him or not,” He said to break the tension in the silence that followed. He didn’t want to believe that his family was missing and probably dead but they had no reason to distrust Ryou.</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” Allura said shaking her head. “But until we have reason to believe otherwise I see no reason not to proceed as if we do.” She looked over at them all, “The next time someone arrives ask to speak to your surviving family as soon as possible as that should confirm if Ryou was telling the truth or not.”</p>
<p>“And we need to find out what Ryou wanted to tell us about the Olkari weapon,” Keith said speaking up for the first time since Ryou walked in. “Something about the way he hesitated when he was going to say it worries me.” Shiro nodded his head in agreement. </p>
<p>“Yes we do but for now all we can do is wait,” Allura said shaking her head. He wondered what other nasty surprises they were in store for. “Still no matter what new situation we find ourselves in we will face it together.” He noticed everyone agreed except Pidge who still looked angry.</p>
<p>The End</p>
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